Joyce Onwuka
The National Assembly has been asked to probe the death of Mrs Lydia Idowu Adedipe said to have been subjected to unprofessional medical attention by officials of the country’s premier University Teaching College, Ibadan.
Family sources said medical workers at UCH watched Mrs Adedipe died in pain on Wednesday March 28 failing to provide the necessary medicare at least to prolong her life.
She died of ovarian cancer, a terminal disease but she was subjected to unnecessary cultural, psychological and financial exploitation by the medical staff. After paying millions of naira, she was kept in a filthy ward and subjected to treatments that fall short of dignity.
The Nigerian Human Rights Community, NHRC said the UCH has continued to be undertaker of many deaths too many.
The group said many people are dying at UCH due to many factors the chief being the loss of humanity in the medical staff which is far more than the lack of equipment which is also a real problem. The NHRC, established in 2007, is a coalition of 135 civil society and community based groups spread across the country.
Today’s UCh lack water, no light, no lift with a highly unhygienic environment where patients are risk of communicable diseases.
‘We call on the National Assembly to probe the circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs. Families and relatives watched here die while the staff did not show any empathy undermining he core principles of medical ethics. Her death could have been avoided if the right thing was done’, the Nigerian Human Rights Community said in a statement signed by its officials, Olubodun Alao.
NHRC said while many Nigerians come over to the UCH to save their lives, the institution has become the first line of death for many patients.
‘In Nigeria, UCH is expected to be the most remarkable medical institution.Today, UCH is a shadow of itself. Apart from poor management of material and human resources, the centre is hub to the worst form of medical workers who appear to take delight in seeing people lose their lives even after millions of funds have been expended to safe their loved ones.
The group said UCH has fallen below global standards, the private suit became death suit. The medical workers are not just inhuman but callous. UCH has become the hone of death instead of life.
It is a disgrace to humanity that people are dying at the premier medical center where health officials seem to be helpless.
‘We call for complete overhaul of the UCH. The National Assembly needs to do something before it is too late.The medical workers are enemies of the patients they are expected to protect. The facilities are poor and ill maintained. Officials seem to be only after money and do not care about human lives both in their actions and in their utterances. The UCH has become a huge embarrassment to Nigeria,’ the coalition said.